Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, for the parish vestry meeting, The Last Sunday of Epiphany, 2 March, 2025.
Every year, as part of the vestry meeting process, our Diocesan Social Justice Committee asks parishes to vote on a motion concerning some social cause or issue that is in the news. Each year the Social Justice Committee gives these motions careful thought and research.
The 2025 Social Justice Motion gives all churches in our Diocese the chance to call on our provincial government to reverse its opposition to and closer of Supervised Consumption Sites across the province. When our vestry meets tomorrow, on March 2nd, the motion we will consider reads as follows:
We, the parish of All Saints, Collingwood, in the Diocese of Toronto, urge the Province of Ontario to reverse the planned closure of safe consumption sites in Ontario, and to lift the ban on the creation of new sites, in order to expand life-saving harm reduction services to Ontarians.
A fact sheet on the motion, and a video explaining it, can be found here.
Before I talk about the motion, let me offer a short explanation of what I think we as church mean when we talk about Social Justice. Social Justice should not be confused with supporting any one political party. Social justice is about how we live the values of the Kingdom of God in our daily lives. It’s about how our social values uphold the value of each life made in the image of God and loved by Jesus.
Our province does not value lives as it should. Between November 2024 and January 2025, an average of seven people a day died in Ontario from drug overdoses. Each of those people mattered: they were someone’s child, brother, sister, partner, parent. So for me, the basic question boils down to this: we as Christians and as Ontarians are not okay with people dying if their deaths are preventable. If we don’t want them dying of hunger and exposure on the street or in homeless encampments, then we don’t want them dying of overdoses.
The premise of the Supervised Consumption Site program has always been to offer spaces that provide a wide spectrum of health and medical attention. For some users, they function as community clinics, offering a path away from addiction and back to wellness. They bring drug users and care professionals together and offer hope for healing, and they make neighbourhoods safer.
Here are some comments that the Social Justice Committee has gathered:
Rebecca is another parent whose child attends school near a supervised consumption site, the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site. She says, “As a parent, I value safe consumption sites. Amidst the opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of lives in Ontario, safe consumption sites are saving lives, and making our communities safer. I am sympathetic to people who are concerned for their safety; however, as research points out, overdose prevention centres do not increase local crime, but instead help reduce drug use in public spaces and reduce the disposal of syringes in public spaces, such as parks and school yards.”
Zach, who lives in a homeless encampment in Toronto, goes to a nearby SCS for harm reduction supplies. He says, “I don’t use these as much myself, but other people come here [to my tent] and get this stuff. I often go three times a day to refresh the supplies.” He adds that people who are
addicted “gotta do it somewhere. It’s better people know what you’re doing and how you are doing it, so you don’t do it in the bathroom. That’s how people die.”
We might decide that Safe Consumption Sites are a Toronto problem, but we’d be wrong. Health advocates in Barrie and Orillia have been trying in vain to establish sites in their communities, and we know that drug use happens in small communities, where there are even fewer places to turn for help. I hope that you will look at the materials that our Diocese has made available on this subject and that you will decide to support this year’s motion.
The clergy team hopes that when all four parishes in our region have voted to support the motion, we can write a joint letter to Brian Saunderson, our newly re-elected MLA for Grey Simcoe, calling on him to consider the concerns that we have raised as Christians and as citizens. Better yet if we could present the letter in person and have a discussion. Please support the motion so we can do that.
Blessings,
Fr. Michael
https://odprn.ca/occ-opioid-and-suspect-drug-related-death-data/
No comments:
Post a Comment